News from the Dark Side: 'Saving the Night Skies'

CNSNews.com ^ | July 18, 2002 | Tom DeWeese

[Gorzaloon]

(this is not aimed at you, I don't recall reading any other of your posts)

Gee..I feel so...DULL! :-)

[spqrzilla9]

Well said.

[gcruse]

 
     Let us begin with the understanding that
there is no such thing as "light pollution,"

Having moved back to Texas from
various locations on the West Coast,
all I have to do is look up at night
to know the above statement is a crock.
When the only stars you can see at
night year round add up to about
twenty, you just may have light
pollution.

[Tourist Guy]

bump for later read

[RightWhale]

The author of this article is off the beam and coming in for a landing in the swamp. Int Dark Sky has nothing to do with the godless greenies.

[strela]

Bump for later. Meesa got a meeting.

[Free the USA]

Index Bump

[snarkpup]

Here is a link to the introductory page for the IDA's Lighting Code Handbook. This has a lot of information about fixture selection and other outdoor illumination engineering topics as well as a discussion of why everyone benefits from doing this right.

[snarkpup]

Speaking of glare, something needs to be done about those new high-intensity headlights people are getting. The glare from them in the blue end of the spectrum just destroys night vision and is going to start causing accidents on the part of oncoming traffic. When one of them passes me at night I can't see for a few seconds, and I have excellent night vision.

It's much worse than "a few seconds". At the IDA conference I attended, a vision specialist pointed out after you have been temporarily blinded (e.g., by driving by a gas station lit with "glare bombs"), your peripheral vision may remain disabled long after you think you can see again. This is because when part of the retina is disabled, the brain interpolates with a plausible image. (This is why you can't see your "blind spot".) The trees, houses, and sidewalks you think you are seeing passing by in your peripheral vision may be nothing more than extrapolations from other parts of the retina that are still working. However, if there is a child over there about to dart into the roadway, you won't see him if his image falls on the part of the retina where this interpolation is happening. When the child's image moves onto part of your retina that does work, he will seem to pop up out of nowhere.

[Tourist Guy]

>>>something needs to be done about those new high-intensity headlights<<<

Yes those are horrid!
Another thing that's bad are some of these cars that have either fog or parking lights (I'm not sure which they are) that are circular and set very close together between the headlights.

On more than one occasion when it was rainy/foggy I judged the car to be farther away than it was because these lights appeared as if they were headlights at a greater distance. Scared the beejeebees out of me when I realized how close they really were.

That said, I find nothing wrong with doing something so we can enjoy our night skies. I moved to a rural area five years ago and each year the "orange light" encroaches.

[Ditter]

Thats true, I had a red metallic car that looked green under sodium vapor lights. The first time I parked at a certain restaurant, I almost called the police & reported it stolen before I realized it was sitting right where I parked it.

[Poohbah]

Darn. I left the porch light on again.